We’ve rated the top ecommerce platforms at least four stars out of five in our ecommerce comparison chart. You don’t need any coding knowledge to build a stylish online store. This is not true of more complex self-hosted ecommerce software like WordPress and Magento (if you want to find out more about these advanced tools, visit our guide on best ecommerce software).
OpenCart. OpenCart could be a great choice for small businesses without tech savvy employees. OpenCart is very simple to install and start using. It runs very quickly using simple code. OpenCart allows you to set advanced user privileges and separate access for users and groups. A simple code also has drawbacks; often for sale extensions and themes may not be up-to-date with security standards.
WooCommerce is free to download and easy to setup, making it ideal for the small business using a WordPress website. The interface is modern and intuitive and creates beautiful websites using extensive and mobile-friendly themes. Plenty of add ons such as Instagram integration, table rate shipping and wholesale pricing can be purchased if businesses want to take it up a notch. It’s by far one of the best options for small businesses, due to its affordability and ease of content creation on WordPress to bridge the gap between content and commerce.

Live Music Archive is essentially a partnership between Internet Archive and etree.org, a community dedicated to providing high-quality, lossless versions of live concerts. You can think of it as a bootlegger’s paradise given the site’s sheer abundance of concert material, much of which focuses on jam bands such as the Grateful Dead, String Cheese Incident, and Sound Tribe Sector 9. Still, there are a host of other bands to choose from — The Smashing Pumpkins, Jack Johnson, Animal Collective, etc. — along with plenty of genres to browse, ranging from jazz to reggae.

At Digital River, we believe in true accountability. Everything about our advanced cloud solution is designed for risk-free global commerce. Our proven expertise with tech-centric brands means you have a proactive partner who is always focused on your success. We power and personalize your shopping experiences, process and fulfill orders, and localize your online business everywhere. To protect your brand, we take on risk. We combat fraud, and simplify billing, taxes and compliance. Accountability means we bring you leading tools for digital disruption. With the latest revenue models, we help you grow and meet shifts in buyer preference. Built for B2C and B2B, our commerce cloud supports everything from subscriptions, and accounts and entitlements, to micro-transactions, emerging payments and the Internet of Selling your Things. In short, we’re all-in, fully committed and responsible for each facet of your ecommerce business. We are trusted advocates who help build your brand, amplify your ROI and expand your global opportunity. Digital River is Commerce with Accountability. www.digitalriver.com
Load time is a pretty straightforward indicator of how fast your site is. Simply put, it’s the measure of how long it takes a page (or pages) on your site to fully load. A slow site is a killer in ecommerce – potential customers run away from slow sites, and as we mentioned earlier, each second you gain in site loading speed translates directly into sales gained.